With negotiators chasing a Tuesday deadline for the framework of a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program, it seems unlikely that Iran would immediately respond militarily to this week’s Saudi airstrikes in Yemen, analysts say. But the confrontation has added a new layer of unpredictability — and confusion — to the many, multidimensional conflicts that have turned large swaths of the Middle East into war zones over the past four years, analysts say.

The United States is aligned alongside Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and against them in Yemen. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, who have joined in the Saudi offensive in Yemen, are bombing factions in Libya backed by Turkey and Qatar, who also support the Saudi offensive in Yemen. The Syrian conflict has been fueled by competition among all regional powers to outmaneuver one another on battlefields far from home.

Not since the 1960s — and perhaps going back even further — has there been a time when so many Arab states and factions were engaged in so many wars, in quite such confusing configurations, said Frederic Wehrey of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It’s so dangerous,” he said.

The “story” of Yemen appears simple. Houthi rebels, who are Shia Muslims, have captured the capital of Sanaa with the help – so say the Saudis – of the Iranians. The legitimate President – Abed Rabou Mansour Hadi – has fled to the Saudi capital of Riyadh from his bolthole in the old southern Yemeni capital of Aden. The Saudis will not permit an Iranian proxy state to be set up on their border – always forgetting that they already have an Iranian-proxy state called Iraq on their northern border, courtesy of the 2003 Anglo-American invasion of Iraq.

The real “story” is more important. Perhaps half of the Saudi army is of Yemeni tribal origin. Saudi soldiers are intimately – through their own families – involved in Yemen, and the Yemen revolution is a stab in the guts of the Saudi royal family. No wonder King Salman of Saudi Arabia – if he indeed rules his nation – wishes to bring this crisis to an end. But are his bombing raids on Sanaa going to crush a Shia Muslim rebellion?

Unprecedented in modern Arab history, a Sunni Muslim coalition of 10 nations – including non-Arab Pakistan – has attacked another Arab nation. The Sunnis and the Shia of the Middle East are now at war with each other in Iraq, in Syria and Yemen. Pakistan is a nuclear power. The armies of Bahrain and the Gulf states include Pakistani soldiers. Pakistanis were among the dead in the first great battle against Iraqi troops in the 1991 Gulf War.

The Americans do not know what to do. They cannot give the Saudis direct military assistance – their nuclear talks with Iran are more important – and so their soft verbal support for King Salman is supposed to mollify their Sunni allies and avoid antagonising the Iranians. But the closer a nuclear deal comes between the US and Iran, the more forcefully their partners in the Arab world will push their cards. What provoked the Saudis into their extraordinary adventure in Yemen was not the approach of Houthis towards Aden but the approach of a US-Iranian agreement at Lausanne.

The gunmen captured Gwoza nine months ago and turned the town into the headquarters of their movement and a crucial operating base. Shielded by the Mandara Mountains near the border with Cameroon, Gwoza had been the capital of Boko Haram’s self-proclaimed “Caliphate”. The area’s inhabitants are from the same Kanuri tribe as Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, and most of his fighters.

But a Nigerian army statement said: “Troops this morning captured Gwoza, destroying the headquarters of the terrorists’ self-styled Caliphate.” The army added that “mopping up” operations were continuing in the Gwoza area, which has a population of about 300,000. Until this month, Boko Haram controlled about 20,000 square miles of northern Nigeria, ruling a domain the size of Belgium with about 1.8 million inhabitants. Most of that territory has now been recaptured with the help of the army of neighbouring Chad.

But Nigeria’s army is riddled with corruption and incompetence. Whether its forces can hold their gains remains open to question. President Goodluck Jonathan, who faces re-election tomorrow, had been under intense domestic and international pressure to deal with the Islamist insurgency.

The comments were made by EC attorney Bernhard Schima in a case brought by privacy campaigner Maximilian Schrems, looking at whether the data of EU citizens should be considered safe if sent to the US in a post-Snowden revelation landscape.

“You might consider closing your Facebook account, if you have one,” Schima told attorney general Yves Bot in a hearing of the case at the European court of justice in Luxembourg. When asked directly, the commission could not confirm to the court that the Safe Harbour rules provide adequate protection of EU citizens’ data as it currently stands.

Other forms of payment are much easier for governments to track, and so they very much prefer them. But we are rapidly getting to the point where the use of cash is considered to be a “suspicious activity” all by itself. These days, if you pay a hotel bill with cash or if you pay for several hundred dollars worth of goods at a store with cash you are probably going to get looked at funny.

You see, the truth is that we have already been trained to regard the use of large amounts of cash to be unusual. The next step will be to formally ban large cash transactions like France and other countries in Europe are already doing. Starting in September, cash transactions of more than 1,000 euros will be banned in France.

We don’t have these kinds of outright bans in the United States just yet, but what we do have are some very strict reporting requirements. A widow’s bank account was seized by the IRS and she now faces criminal charges for depositing her legal inheritance money in lumps instead of all together.

Janet Malone, 68, had $18,775 seized from her — money that was legally earned and was legally bestowed to her by her late husband, Ronald Malone. The problem, according to the government, was the fact that she deposited it in several lumps instead of all at once. According to the Associated Press, Mrs. Malone deposited the cash in increments between $5,800 and $9,000. The widow’s private financial affairs evidently set off red flags under the watchful gaze of the federal government.

The Environment Agency says the figures look bad because the EU's assessment criteria have been tightened. The EU asks nations to grade rivers into poor, moderate, good and high. Governments should aim for rivers to be "good" - that is relatively unaffected by human activity. "High" refers to upland streams in sparsely-populated areas. The statistics show 0.08% of England's rivers are high quality; 17.06% good; 62.4% moderate; 17.22% poor and 3.24% bad.

Rose O'Neill from WWF said: "The figures released today are shocking and show us that things are worse than we thought. This is unacceptable and threatens wildlife and livelihoods. It's clear that we are failing our rivers and the wildlife they impact. We need to see government action to restore these rivers, for example by reducing abstraction and tackling pollution."

These are strong words coming from Israel’s best friend. The mood has not been this bad since 1991, when the elder George Bush delayed loan guarantees to Israel; or maybe 1956, when Dwight Eisenhower forced Israel (and Britain and France) to withdraw after the intervention against Egypt.

Mr Obama was right to chastise Mr Netanyahu over Palestine. But he should not ignore him altogether. This is a vital moment in the Middle East. Mr Obama may this week embrace Israel’s greatest foe, Iran, by agreeing on the outline for a nuclear deal. As cynical as Mr Netanyahu may be about Palestine, he deserves to be heard on the risk that a deal will turn Iran from a pariah into a legitimate and overbearing regional power.

But rather than dying down, the spat worsened. Anonymous American officials leaked news that Israel has been treacherously spying on them during the Iran talks and briefing Congress — a charge Israel denies. For a president as self-controlled as Mr Obama, the vehemence towards Mr Netanyahu has a stage-managed quality. So why the drama, Obama?

The suspicion is that Mr Obama wants to blunt Mr Netanyahu’s criticism of an Iran deal, or to besmirch him as a racist, so as to stop wavering Democrats from joining the many who cheered Mr Netanyahu in Congress when he denounced the looming agreement as “a very bad deal”. Mr Netanyahu is wrong to reject any plausible deal with Iran. His confrontational tactics may do great damage to his country. Yet he is right on at least one point that Mr Obama is wilfully ignoring: Iran’s belligerent behaviour in the Middle East is an increasing menace.

But by publishing the declassified document from 1987, the US reportedly breached the silent agreement to keep quiet on Israel's nuclear powers for the first time ever, detailing the nuclear program in great depth. The timing of the revelation is highly suspect, given that it came as tensions spiraled out of control between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama ahead of Netanyahu's March 3 address in Congress, in which he warned against the dangers of Iran's nuclear program and how the deal being formed on that program leaves the Islamic regime with nuclear breakout capabilities.

Another highly suspicious aspect of the document is that while the Pentagon saw fit to declassify sections on Israel's sensitive nuclear program, it kept sections on Italy, France, West Germany and other NATO countries classified, with those sections blocked out in the document. The 386-page report entitled "Critical Technological Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations" gives a detailed description of how Israel advanced its military technology and developed its nuclear infrastructure and research in the 1970s and 1980s.

Israel is "developing the kind of codes which will enable them to make hydrogen bombs. That is, codes which detail fission and fusion processes on a microscopic and macroscopic level," reveals the report, stating that in the 1980s Israelis were reaching the ability to create bombs considered a thousand times more powerful than atom bombs. The revelation marks a first in which the US published in a document a description of how Israel attained hydrogen bombs.

The report also notes research laboratories in Israel "are equivalent to our Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge National Laboratories," the key labs in developing America's nuclear arsenal. Israel's nuclear infrastructure is "an almost exact parallel of the capability currently existing at our National Laboratories," it adds. "As far as nuclear technology is concerned the Israelis are roughly where the US was in the fission weapon field in about 1955 to 1960," the report reveals, noting a time frame just after America tested its first hydrogen bomb.

Aside from nuclear capabilities, the report revealed Israel at the time had "a totally integrated effort in systems development throughout the nation," with electronic combat all in one "integrated system, not separated systems for the Army, Navy and Air Force." It even acknowledged that in some cases, Israeli military technology "is more advanced than in the US."

The 2013 German coalition government agreement states: "We strive for an even closer network of European forces, which can evolve into a parliamentary-controlled European army." "The Chancellor agrees that it is generally good that there is and should be a deeper military cooperation in Europe," said deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz, also referring to the "concentrated challenges" in European security policy, which require a common response.

Elmar Brok, an influential MEP from Merkel’s CDU party, said an EU treaty change was necessary for giving flesh to the idea of a European army. Normally troops are sent abroad by a decision of parliament. Since it is not possible to wait for 28 parliaments to decide, countries should delegate this right to the European Parliament. In the Berlin's Tagesspiegel, Steinmeier spoke of "new risks and threats" to European peace that necessitate a "swift adaptation" of the security strategy. "For the SPD, the long-term goal of a European army is a major policy matter and has been part of the party program for many years," he said.

"The Arab … ministers agreed on adopting an important principle, which is forming the unified Arab military force," Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby told reporters after the meeting in the resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. "The task of the force will be rapid military intervention to deal with security threats to Arab nations," Elaraby added. The draft resolution will be referred to the Arab leaders during their March 28-29 summit in Egypt.

Egyptian TV reported earlier that the ministers asked Elaraby to coordinate with Arab armies' chiefs of staff within one month to begin forming the unified force. The Arab league chief described the resolution as "historic". The dangers facing the region have perhaps never seemed starker. Conflicts are intensifying in Yemen and Libya and the civil war in Syria is entering its fifth year.

Islamic State militants have taken over swathes of Iraq and Syria and spawned splinter groups across the Arab world. The United States and other major powers are seeking a final nuclear deal with Iran, in a process that worries many Sunni Arab leaders wary of Shi'ite Iran's growing influence in the region.

Some 16,000 personnel are committed to air defences, 2,500 responsible for strategic missiles and 100,000 man the National Guard, according to the IISS Military Balance, 2015. The kingdom also has 24,500 paramilitary forces. The Saudi armed forces have close ties with foreign armies, particularly the United States, Britain and France which gives them access to training and equipment.

The Saudi army regularly buys modern equipment, with the navy seeking to purchase submarines, according to the media. Riyadh's appetite for arms, already high due to a perceived threat from Iran, is fed by regional instability, notably in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia on Thursday launched air strikes as part of a multinational coalition. It is traditionally a customer of the US and British arms industries, although Riyadh has also sealed contracts with France and Germany for its navy and has bought Eurofighter jets.

The Saudi army has 600 heavy tanks, 780 light armoured vehicles and 1,423 armoured troop carriers. Its air force is equipped with 313 fighter jets, including F-15s, Tornados and Eurofighter Typhoons, as well as helicopters. Considered a priority, air defences and deterrents include 16 batteries of Patriot missiles, 17 batteries of Shahine missiles, 16 of Hawk missiles and 73 Crotale/Shahine missile units.

"The higher the oversupply on the oil market became in recent months the more the geopolitical risks were ignored," said commodities analysts at Commerzbank. "These have suddenly come back into sharp focus, however, following the Saudi-led military air strikes carried out by ten Gulf states against the Houthi rebels in Yemen."

The attacks have reversed a prolonged period of weakness in the oil market amid rising inventories in the US and the determination of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to maintain their current policy of pumping around 30 million barrels per day, which is equal to a third of world supply.

Although Yemen has little oil it occupies a strategic location at the base of the Persian Gulf along key shipping channels leading into the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Analysts are also concerned over the wider implications for major oil producers among the Gulf Co-operation Council states including Saudi Arabia, which is understood to be preparing to deploy ground forces.

The Financial Policy Committee (FPC), which is in charge of maintaining financial stability at the Bank, said liquidity - or the degree to which assets can be easily traded - may have become "more fragile" in some markets. Policymakers, including Bank Governor Mark Carney, said they would work with the Financial Conduct Authority to assess whether asset managers could cope with a rapid change in market conditions.

"The Committee remains concerned that investment allocations and pricing of some securities may presume that asset sales can be performed in an environment of continuous market liquidity, although liquidity in some markets may have become more fragile," the FPC said following a meeting this week.

Mr Carney warned last month that diverging monetary policies in the US, Britain, Europe, and Japan may set off further currency turbulence and "test capital flows across the global economy, including to emerging markets." "Any of these risks could trigger abrupt shifts in global risk appetite that in turn might lead to a sudden reappraisal of underlying vulnerabilities in highly indebted economies, or sharp adjustments in financial markets."

The current number of DNA profiles created, from the felons’ samples, ranges from 10,000-12,000 per year. Of those cases, 550 positive hits were made on unsolved cases, according to Fox 6. The number of samples is expected to potentially increase to an estimated 60,000 samples being collected per year. Police make the case that perhaps thousands of unsolved crimes could be solved.

“We will save lives. We will save people from becoming sexual assault victims, shooting victims, because of the evidence that is collected and out there,” said Brian O’Keefe, with the Department of Justice. But the infringement upon individual liberties didn’t go unnoticed.

In early 2009, the average price of a pound of ground beef was hovering near 2 dollars. In February, it hit a brand new all-time record high of $4.238 per pound. Even just 12 months ago, the price of ground beef was sitting at $3.555 per pound. So we are talking about a huge increase. And this hits American families where they really live. Each year, the average American consumes approximately 270 pounds of meat. The only nation in the world that eats more meat than we do is Luxembourg.

If the paychecks of American workers were going up fast enough to deal with this increase, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But of course that is not happening. In an article just last week, I showed that real median household income is a couple thousand dollars lower now than it was during the depths of the last recession. The middle class is being squeezed, and we are rapidly getting to the point where burgers are going to be considered a “luxury” item.

We are at a turning point. The bubble of false stability that we have been living in is rapidly coming to an end, and when people start to realize that another great economic crisis is coming there is going to be a lot of panic. And as far as food prices go, they are just going to keep taking a bigger chunk out of all of our wallets. As high as prices are already, the truth is that your food dollars are never going to go farther than they do right now.